Magyar David takes on security Goliaths

Hungarian company Balabit said that an injection of $8 million series A funding from C5 Capital will help to boost its security profile internationally.

The startup – formed in 2000 – has a suite of security products which have corporate and government representation worldwide.

Zoltan Gyorko, CEO of the company, told TechEye: “In every country there is a local firewall company and we became that local firewall company in the government and banking sectors. “ In 2004, the company decided to go abroad and although it got some strong leads at CeBIT in 2004, Gyorko said it couldn’t service the leads.

He said Germany was its first international target. “Our whole strategy is selling through channel partners exclusively,” he said. Balabit had bootstrapped itself from an original $25,000 investment in an organic wYway. He said that the company had to teach its customers that they had a problem and Balabit had the solution.

The capital investment means that the company investore more into the European market, including the UK and Scandinavia. It will hire local people who “have the best local jokes” and understand the local markets, and the local compliance questions.

Balabit will also target the United States, said Gyorko The firm has shown 30 percent growth in the last four years, he said. Over 1,000 companies worldwide are already using Balabit, he said.